[1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. However, over time he began to get the impression that he was the only one trying to make their marriage work. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy. These secrets Lori Ruff had kept from even her husband, Blake Ruff, and his family. She suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Plot Summary submission guide. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. After marrying, the couple moved away from the senior Ruffs, who lived in eastern Texas, settling in Leonard, Texas, in the southwestern region. Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. All rights reserved. Authorities believe she initially traveled to the home with the intent of harming the family.[6]. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. By the time Blake Ruff's wife died, he realized he didn't know her at all. The nature of these scribblings led some followers of the case to believe that Ruff was trying to avoid prison time, due to the references to police, a possible jail-term length, and the name of Ben Perkins, a Los Angeles attorney. The tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. [9][6], After Lori's funeral, some of the Ruffs drove to Leonard to see if they could find out more about her in her house. Perhaps because of these miscarriages, Lori was ultra-protective of her daughter. Yes! After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. She then moved to Idaho and procured a drivers license using the deceased girls birth certificate. For example, Lori would often ramble to the minister on a variety of topics; mainly her perceived flaws, problems, and the failure of her marriage. This was very sophisticated, Velling said. [3], Ruff was incredibly overprotective of her daughter, often refusing to let anyone else hold her, which angered her husband's family. In 2016, she was identified as. Blake's parents were suspicious of Lori right from the beginning. She and her young daughter had visibly lost weight. Many of these sessions tended to feature increasingly strange behavior on her part. However, according to records, Becky Sue Turner asphyxiated in a house fire when she was just 2 years old. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. For two years, Social Security investigator Joseph Velling has been working to uncover the real identity of Lori Erica Ruff, who was Lori Erica Kennedy before marrying into an East Texas family in 2004. The house was discovered in disarray, with piles of dirty dishes, laundry, and trash stacked up around the house, as well as shredded documents and papers with incoherent scribblings on them. Velling agreed to help identify her as a case of identify theft. In May 1988, McLean obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. And, as he flipped through multiple IDs with pictures of his wife at different ages, he realized they all had different names printed on them, according to the Daily Mail. Although Blakes family was suspicious of Lori from the beginning, Blake himself was very much in love. Or, Becky Sue Turner? However, several weeks after getting the new identification, Becky legally changed her identity to Lori Erica Kennedy in Dallas. Nothing. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. She left behind an 11-page suicide note but apparently no clue that she had lived a secret life. Market data provided by Factset. [1] Despite the questions Blake's family had about Lori, the couple married in January 2004. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. The only person in attendance at their wedding ceremony, held in a church outside Dallas, was the officiating preacher. Apparently, after Becky Sue Turner perished, a woman turned up and requested a copy of the birth certificate. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. She refused to let other people hold the child and was overly protective, even for a first-time mother. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. Whilethe file on Lori Erica Ruff may be closed, her bizarre case continues to fascinate, and will forever raise thechillingquestion: Just how well do you know those closest to you? Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a former nuclear physicist who created[citation needed] the field of forensic genealogy, learned of Lori Ruff in 2013 and began work on the case. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 December 24, 2010), was an American identity thief[3] whose true identity remained unknown for nearly six years after her death. [5], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? A 2013 Seattle Times feature article about the case was published in news outlets around the world and created enormous interest in the online "websleuth" community. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. True Crime. Sources 2021 Emash Digital & Mike Ferguson, Mike Morford. Lori Erica Ruff's true identity was Kimberly McLean. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. As Blake began the daunting task of sorting through his wife's possessions, he knew that he would have to deal with one thing that Lori had always told him he was to never touch. And she may have even attempted to break into the family's home, according to the Seattle Times. About a month afterward, the certificate was used to obtain legal identification in Idaho. The two moved to Leonard, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas and roughly 125 miles from Ruffs parents in Longview. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. Blake did learn that Lori was born somewhere in Arizona. The house was in total shambles. That created a lot of heartburn for the family.. For several years, nobody suspected anything. It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. But it wasn't until Lori ended her life on Christmas Eve that the Ruffs would get answers. McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. The house belonged to his parents and it was his father who discovered her [] The post Lori Erica Ruff 93 Generation Why appeared first on The Generation Why Podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. She was never too keen to go into further detail. And she was aggressive about it, Velling said. Related: A Killer Calls: The Unsolved Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott. All rights reserved. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. If Lori was trying to escape her past, then it could explain her reluctance for publicity. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? Find a Grave It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. [7] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in vitro fertilisation in 2008. [citation needed], After Lori's funeral, some of the Ruffs drove to Leonard to see if they could find out more about her in her house. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010), was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer. Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. Why had Lori begun behaving so erratically? She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. The Bat Bombs of WWII: Presidentially Approved, Totally Anna Anderson: Imposter of Duchess Anastasia, End of the World Predictions that Never Happened. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, although the difference turned out to be less than a year. [2] The writings on the paper found in the lockbox included the scribblings "North Hollywood police", "402 months", and "Ben Perkins", who turned out to be an attorney. McLean, posing as Becky Sue Turner, then appeared before a judge in Dallas on July 5, 1988, and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. "True identity of Lori Ruff revealed six years after she committed suicide", "After 30 Years, Lori Ruff's True Identity Finally Revealed", "5 Creepy-As-Hell Stories Of Real People With No Identity", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. Such things have happened in other cases, and are often traumatic events. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. All rights reserved. But, it didn't happen easily and it took the hard work of a number of people and a little Among the various documents was a certificate indicating that Lori Kennedy had changed her name from Becky Sue Turner. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Ruff's earliest known activity dates back to May 1988, when she requested the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who was killed, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. The mystery surrounding Jane Does identity begins in May 1988, when the unknown woman requested the Bakersfield, Calif., birth certificate of a 2-year-old girl, Becky Sue Turner, who died in a 1971 house fire in Fife, Wash., Velling said. After obtaining the driver's license, Ruff went before a judge in Dallas on July 5 1988 and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy; a week later she obtained a social security number, effectively erasing her past. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. Lori Erica Ruff. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas.After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. Blake, who was close with his parents, couldn't take it anymore. Unfortunately, it looks like Lori took all of her secrets to the grave. In 2013, a nuclear-physicist-turned-forensic genealogist Collen Fitzpatrick worked on Ruffs case and new details emerged about her past. She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 18, in the fall of 1986, because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. The Varangians: Viking Conquerors turned Byzantium Honor Guard, The Secret Necropolis of Ancient Varna and the First Goldsmiths. She then received a Texas driver license in 1989, and the next year qualified for a GED[2] then enrolled in Dallas County Community College. Given some of the comments she made or suggested, she didnt appear to realize why the marriage ended. Who was she? According to the Seattle Times , a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff's background began after the paper ran . When Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff took her own life on Christmas Eve, 2010 in Longview, Texas, she took with her all of the secrets of her true identity. Erica Kelley is a native Tennessean exploring historical and contemporary true crime in the South. By the time she married Jon Blakely Blake Ruff, of Longview, Texas, in January 2004, her phony identification was as solid as her real past was distant. Over time the pair grew closer and eventually, they eloped to Dallas. How had their marriage fallen apart? In his spare time he enjoys astronomy and Xboxing. Review our. When Lori Erica Kennedy took her own life, she left behind evidence that she'd stolen another's identity. Image: Social Security Administration. [6], On December 24, 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. Follow along with 48 Hours every week as award-winning CBS News correspondents investigate the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience. She also began sending harassing emails to the Ruffs, created a scene at a custody exchange, and stole a set of house keys from them. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. As with the birth certificate, it was relatively straight forward to acquire a new social security number. The other was for Blake. The truth of Ruff's deception only came to light after she committed suicide, and some determined investigators began looking into . [1] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in-vitro fertilization in 2008. At some point in the past, Lori had been a dancer at an exclusive gentlemans club, and a post-mortem examination revealed that Lori, not Becky, had received breast implants. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne shed be leaving for good. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the mysterious Lori Erica Ruff. She wasn't Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America, Velling told FoxNews.com. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Investigation Discovery's ' Where Murder Lies: The Girl in the Lockbox' chronicles the story behind Lori Ruff's past. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. The investigation into her suicide hit dead end after dead end. DNA taken from the body might also help crack the case. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six ye Lori Erica Ruff - Top podcast episodes Or, maybe she was none of them. Watch 48 Hours Saturday 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+ and hear all new episodes every Sunday. On the West Coast, we generally dont have a discernible accent, said Velling, a Seattle native. The house was discovered in disarray, with piles of dirty dishes, laundry, and trash stacked up around the house, as well as shredded documents and papers with incoherent scribblings on them. And, with the child, Lori's behavior became even more erratic. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. But who she really was is still a mystery. Upon opening the container, Blakediscovered why: Inside was a birth certificate and IDs belonging to several different people. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. After her death, her husband and his family found the evidence of her falsified identity in a lock box in her closet. Within the next two years, she obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died with her two sisters in a house fire in 1971. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Last spring, we brought you 8 Mysterious People Without a Past, a list of individuals who seemed to have had much of their early existence wiped from history. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. Related: Lady of the Dunes: Was the Unidentified Cape Cod Murder Victim an Extra in Jaws? [2] She would also obsessively track the Ruffs' family history and try to find out their family recipes, but still refused to talk about her past. Lori Erica Ruff - identity SOLVED? One of these had notes written and a collection of phone numbers and names. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. The woman received breast implants in 1991 and claimed to have suffered from bulimia in 1990. If you can never get enough true crime Congratulations, youve found your people. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. Loris behavior was highly erratic in the timebetween theseparationand her death; she sent threatening emails to Blake and his family, and might have even attempted a break-in at Blakes parents home. McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In the box, which she told her husband never to touch, were all the documents exposing her elaborate ruse the paperwork showing the name change and the application for a Social Security number, among other receipts. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. Lori's behavior caused immense tensions between Lori and the Ruffs, even keeping the new grandparents from visiting their granddaughter. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. 1,529 likes. Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. Her mothers remarriage didnt help either and she told her family she was going away. She also began sending harassing e-mails to the Ruffs, created a scene at a custody hearing, and stole a set of house keys from them. At the time, a request of this nature was hardly unusual. They married and had a daughter together. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. He noticed the car and called the police. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. McLean assumed a series of aliases before marrying Blake Ruff in 2004 and settling downleaving no trace of Kimberly McLean, at least until Fitzpatrick began researching her family tree. 2010 42- , . Late in 2015, Velling received a call from a former nuclear physicist and forensic genealogist named Colleen Fitzpatrick, who had been following the case online. With each question she asked, Lori deflected, the Seattle Times reported. Legal Statement. Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. Hersuicide cameafter Blake had filed fordivorce and moved back in with his parents. One was for her daughter. After some failed marriage therapy meetings, Blake Ruff moved back to his parents' house in Longview and filed for divorce, leaving Lori with their daughter in Leonard. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. Photo Credit: Alchetron. His letter contained pages of incoherent rambling. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. Trophy Wife: Dirigido por Christian Sesma. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. [3], The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Whomever she was, the woman Blake knew as Lori Ruff was not who she claimed to be. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. But Lori tragically died by suicide just before Christmas in 2010. Or, Lori Erika Kennedy? The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. RedHanded the podcast jumps head first into all manner of macabre madness. Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. It was either she or his family, and he chose his family, Velling said. Buried deep in the back of Lori's closet, Blake pulled out a sealed lockbox. Lori and Blake tried to have a child almost immediately after they were married, but found themselves experiencing fertility issues. On December 24, 2010, the body of Lori Erica Ruff was found in her car parked in the driveway of the Ruff family's Texas home. However, the Mclean family now has a granddaughter who offers a glimpse of their beloved Kimberly. By changing her name, she created a clean identity a person with no past.. In May of 2016, several commentators on the internet noticed similarities to Ruff's story and to the plot of a 1987 crime drama called Positive I.D., which was directed by a professor of film at UT Arlington. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, that she had had an unhappy childhood, and that she had no siblings; she also said her father had been a failed stockbroker. The contents of this safe put into sharp focus everything that Blake thought he knew about Lori Kennedy. For years, it was nothing but a series of dead ends. Ruff's true origins remained a mystery until 2016, when her identity was confirmed using a combination of public records and direct-to-consumer autosomal SNP analysis of her husband's and daughter's DNA, leading back to the McLeanCassidy family on Philadelphia's Main Line. Unresolved is an investigative and immersive look at those stories, as host Micheal Whelan tries to determine why these stories - unsolved crimes and other unexplained phenomena - have no ending. Crimelines walks you through true crime events, pairing captivating tales with clear storytelling. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. In addition, there were no matches for the woman in any existing fingerprint and facial recognition databases. She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986, because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. One of television's most popular true-crime series adapted for your ears. The house belonged . After following numerous leads he was stumped, and sought the help of the general public to identify her through an article published June 22, 2013, in The Seattle Times. She was much older than that, he said. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. Four years filled with miscarriages and disappointments passed. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. Lori attended the University of Texas regularly and graduated with a business administration degree in 1997. Fitzpatrick found matching DNA records using saliva samples of Blake and Loris daughter. Pic credit: Family pic. Lori Ruff & The Dark Secret She Hid From Everyone 864,142 views Feb 5, 2019 13K Dislike Share Save Weird History 3.81M subscribers Few stories have fascinated the Internet quite like the one of. With little to no clues about who shemight actually be, the woman once known as Lori Erica Ruffwas registered in the federal governments database of missing and unidentified persons as a Jane Doe. They looked for signs of gambling addiction and sex trafficking. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is "Jane Doe," a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her famil. The following people have been ruled out as possible identities for Ruff:[5], Ruff was a white female, who was approximately 41 to 50 years old when she committed suicide. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. In 2010, he moved back in with his parents and filed for divorce. She was above average height at 5feet 10inches (1.78m) tall, and weighed 160 pounds (73kg). Velling said hes determined to uncover Jane Doe's true identity because he suspects she may have used a so-called identity broker to pull off such a complex crime. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". The local police department began a routine investigation and quickly found a safe at the bottom of a closet. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically.